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Romney hits Obama as 'outsourcer-in-chief'

Via Juana Summers in Colorado, Mitt Romney echoed the outsourcing counterattacks on President Barack Obama that national Republicans launched this morning:

Mitt Romney went on the offensive Tuesday, hitting back against the Obama campaign's attacks on his record at Bain Capital, saying that Obama – not he – was the "outsourcer in chief."

It's a pivot on an Obama ad running in swing states that brands Romney as an "outsourcer in chief," saying his companies were "pioneers at shipping U.S. jobs overseas."

Leveling the same charge at Obama, Romney told nearly 1,000 supporters here in Grand Junction that Obama has been "outsourcing a good deal of American jobs himself."

"It is interesting that when it comes to outsourcing that this president has been outsourcing a good deal of American jobs himself by putting money into energy companies, solar and wind energy companies that end up making their products outside the United States," Romney said. "If there's an outsourcer in chief, it's the president of the United States, not the guy that's running to replace him."

Romney's attempt to flip the script after the Obama campaign repeatedly blasted him for outsourcing American jobs comes coupled with a new website out by the Republican National Committee that also looks to paint Obama as the real outsourcer.

The website, Obamanomicsoutsourced.com, charges that Obama has presided over "a record of failure spanning the globe" and that, as president "billions of dollars did go to create jobs that were outsourced or spent overseas."

Obama campaign spokeswoman Lis Smith fired back in a statement this afternoon:

“If his remarks today in Colorado are any indication, Mitt Romney just doesn’t get it. There’s a stark difference between where he and President Obama want to take this country. Mitt Romney’s plans encourage outsourcing. Barack Obama wants to end incentives to send jobs overseas. President Obama has fought to end tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas, fostered incentives for companies to bring jobs back to America and doubled the rate of trade cases we've brought against China to ensure an even playing field for American workers. Mitt Romney, who’s personally profited from investments in companies that were pioneers in shipping American jobs to India and China as a corporate buyout specialist, would slash funds to spur the clean energy sector in America, eliminating renewable energy jobs in states like Colorado and Iowa and ceding the industry to China. The American people deserve a President who will fight to create jobs here in America, not the Outsourcer-in-Chief Mitt Romney promises to be.”

The Obama outsourcer-in-chief argument is one that, as Alex noted earlier today, seems geared more to neutralize the Democrats' outsourcing message than to do actual damage to Obama. Whether it will be effective in doing that remains to be seen.